Project Logs

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• Designing the MK2

  Daniel Nikolajsen • 07/31/2021 at 12:00 • 0 comments

  I figure its about time I tell you about the new upgraded version I am designing. The MK1 is very affordable and works for occasional mobile setups, but perhaps not when you want a permanent setup on a rooftop. Thats why I've started thinking about a new version, but it is still not sure if it will reach market or not. Its such a niche product and it costs a lot both to develop and produce, but hopefully I can figure something out. 

  To be able to focus entirely on the new design, I am soon gonna have a final sale in the shop to sell out the stock of "old" MK1s, so subscribe to the newsletter at www.satran.io so you dont miss out!

  Here are some of the improvements I am planning for MK2:
  - Digital compass, so it automatically finds north
  - Shielded power cable 
  - Waterproof housing
  - Stronger injection molded plastic parts instead of 3D-prints
  - Faster, accelerated motion and simultaneous az/el rotation
  - Quality needle bearings instead of cheap metal pellets
  - Better gear ratio, for heavier antennas up to 1 kg (2lbs)
  - Stronger antenna bracket out of powder coated metal

  Lets hope I can find a decent design, without breaking the bank...

• Tooling board is awesome!

  Daniel Nikolajsen • 06/18/2021 at 17:53 • 0 comments

  Today I tried to machine my tooling board for the first time. Absolutely amazing. Its so hard but machines like butter, and the surface texture is out of this world. Perfect for my plastic molds. The only question is if its durable enough to last for a hundred cycles or more. Time will tell.

  Next its time to finish the injection molding machine and fill the mould with some plastic. But I probably need some release agent, and dont know if I should go with clear laquer or a special silicone oil I bought a few years ago for another project. Probably need to test them both on some scrap piece. 

• If at first you don't succeed

  Daniel Nikolajsen • 06/17/2021 at 05:45 • 0 comments

  Try again! 

  Well, the plastic injection molding machine didnt work as planned. The heat from the heater element didnt transfer where it needed to go; into the nozzle. Therefore the pressure inside got too big for the piston since the plastic didnt melt enough. 

  To make a long story short; I'm now rebuilding the heat cylinder from scratch. A smaller inner diameter (27mm) so the hydraulic piston can handle it, and mounting the heater directly to the nozzle. Plus some other small adjustments, like a spring around the cylinder instead of two small on the sides which made the cylinder wiggle all over the place. 

  (The block on the left in the photo is something called "tooling board" of the brand Renshape. Its a sample I got of a ceramic-filled polyurethane block that you can easily CNC-machine to make molds from, a lot faster and cheaper than aluminium. It will be interesting to see how it works.)

  The plan for this machine, is to produce parts for the Satran MK2 that I am now planning. The next generation rotator will be a lot more professional looking, faster, more durable and weatherproof plus include an antenna. Hopefully it will have both a digital compass and absolute encoder to read its position instead of simple limit switches. But it will also cost twice as much as the MK1, and most probably not finished until next year.

  I have a few MK1 kits available in stock, but interest seems to have cooled off a bit for the first version. But MK1 is not at all abandoned, it will continue to get updates both in hardware and software. Also, soon I hope to offer the MK1 as a preassembled version if that's the case why people are not overloading my checkout page, or maybe everyone is busy sunbathing and barbecuing right now =)
  

• Milling some MDF

  Daniel Nikolajsen • 06/08/2021 at 12:07 • 0 comments

  Yup, aluminum was a bit too tough for my benchtop CNC. So I found a supplier of tooling board that I hope to try out soon, they promised to send me some samples. Tooling board is a high density polyurethane block that you can easily machine and hopefully use to make injection molds. 

  But, it is quite expensive.

  Thats why today, I tested out the CNC gcode with a piece of MDF wood board. It worked quite good in the beginning, but when I got to some depth the thinner details snapped right off. Hopefully tooling board wont have this issue, or I will need to replace all the smaller details with metal pins which would be very time consuming.

  But in total, I'm quite happy with the experiment. Slab some sealer on the mold and I can use it to try the injection molding machine. If it works and the entire mold gets filled up with plastic, I will know if I can use some sort of polymer molds instead of aluminum. If not, I probably need to spend a few thousand dollars on contracting someone to make the molds. 

• Plastic fantastic

  Daniel Nikolajsen • 06/06/2021 at 15:05 • 0 comments

  For the second attempt with the injection molding machine I went to our old farmhouse in the woods. No neighbors to disturb if the contraption starts bellowing out smoke like the last time.

  But it didnt! It actually worked quite good this time, even if some improvements are needed for it to be truly usable. All in all, not too bad for a machine that only cost me around 400 USD.

  It will probably suffice to insulate the nozzle, preheat the aluminium mold plus redesign it with a slightly bigger inlet. Because the melted plastic solidified way to quick and didnt get very far into the mold as you can see...

  And of course this is not one of the final molds, but just an early attempt at milling aluminium in my benchtop CNC.

  Slow but steady. Build, measure, learn! 

• Glorified smoke machine

  Daniel Nikolajsen • 06/03/2021 at 12:10 • 0 comments

  Today was the day I fired up the injection molding machine for the first time. Literally, "fired up". It worked like a charm the first few minutes, but then in an instant it smoldered nasty white smoke all over the apartment. Thank god for emergency stop buttons.

  After some guessing, I found out a few errors to fix. First I need to adjust the PID thermocontrollers to have a slower cycling of the heaters, plus relocate the thermocouplers ("sensors") closer to the actual heaters for a faster response.

  The main fault was that one thermocoupler was mounted directly to the nozzle block, which because of its size and mass heats up a lot slower than the actual barrel inside the heater element. Therefore the plastic closest to the heater probably goes up to over 250 degrees celsius (500 fahrenheit) before the nozzle even have reached 150. 

  Some insulation around the nozzle is also probably a good idea. 

  Plus, next time I will definitely bring the whole setup outside =) 

• Improvements to the app

  Daniel Nikolajsen • 06/03/2021 at 05:10 • 0 comments

  The list is long of all the todos, but yesterday I finally got the new app improvements working. Automatic kepler retrieval from Celestrak, with a search functionality. Now you always have the latest TLEs ("coordinates") in your app, plus you can easily swap between sats.

  But there's a lot more coming. I am making a world map that shows where the satellite is, plus a manual rotator control, plus automatic IP search, automatic GPS position retrieval, remove the need for restarts between sat changes etc etc etc

• Spring is in the... machine

  Daniel Nikolajsen • 05/28/2021 at 09:09 • 0 comments

  Today I built the last remaining part for the injection molding machine; a spring mount for the actual barrel that will contain the melted plastic. With this, you can put your mold a few millimeters under the nozzle and when pressure is applied from above, it gets pushed down against the mold, giving a decent seal. 

  But now its time for coffee to get some energy back. Unfortunately I experienced a nasty customer trolling and threatening me despite me being friendly, trying to solve the issue and even issued a refund. But thats the downside of doing business, sometimes you have to deal with some rotten eggs. Telling from some forum threads, its apparently not his first time making trouble. Thankfully the mails I get once a week or so from customers praising me for my great customer support and innovative product is what gets me up in the morning. Thank you, and keep em coming!

• One more day

  Daniel Nikolajsen • 05/27/2021 at 17:33 • 0 comments

  Yup, tomorrow is probably the day when I finish the injection molding machine. It's been a great run, but soon it is time to see if it will work as intended. At least the electronics are working now, with double thermostats and (at least for my small workshop) a massive hydraulic setup. *fingers crossed*

• First try at milling aluminium molds

  Daniel Nikolajsen • 05/25/2021 at 06:59 • 0 comments

  For the injection molding to work, I need to have molds. Yesterday I started with my first ever try at milling aluminum in my homebuilt CNC-machine. It started off quite okay, but then suddenly the z-axis dropped and buried its nose deep in the aluminium stock. The code and everything seems okay, so I am wondering if it was the stepper motor going crazy thanks to excessive heat. 

  Today I have put a heatsink and a fan on the motor, hopefully that will do the trick. Otherwise my next experiment will be to make molds in a somewhat softer material like polyurethane or polyester, because aluminium is both tricky, hard and expensive.

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